CPS to use reserve funds to balance budget

Layoffs, administrative cuts also help close gap

August 08, 2010|By Azam Ahmed, Tribune reporter

After seven months of dire predictions and the expected layoffs of about 1,200 classroom teachers, Chicago Public Schools finally crossed the final stretch to a balanced budget by completely drawing down its reserve funds.

Much could still change, especially if teachers agree to forgo contractual 4 percent raises or if a federal jobs bill passes that could mean up to $80 million for the school district. But after starting the season with an estimated $1 billion deficit, a battery of layoffs, efficiencies and state actions has enabled school officials to release a balanced budget Monday.

Schools chief Ron Huberman said that completely drawing down the $190 million reserve to balance the budget is necessary because the state still owes the district $236 million from last fiscal year. The district is counting on the state to come through with those payments to replenish the reserve fund.

To balance the budget, high school classrooms will go from 31 students per class to 33. Schools will also lose bilingual teachers and some extra positions afforded in special cases, such as small schools or magnet schools.

Additional budgetary layoffs will continue through next week for teachers at schools whose year starts in September. Those layoffs will include about 800 classroom teachers and 400 support personnel.

The teacher layoffs have been at the center of the debate over the budget crisis, with school officials breaking it down as a choice between concessions and layoffs. But so far, the union has refused concessions.

Huberman has said that about 72 percent of the cuts needed to close the $370 million budget hole were administrative, including central office firings and changes to bus routes that could increase student transit time by up to 10 minutes.

Huberman said his staff had actually trimmed the budget from last year, despite a slight increase in districtwide enrollment, to about $6.4 billion.